Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-02-16
FOOD FROM DIRT AND WATER.
Inventor Edison to Supply tho Ia
bles OF the World.


nutricator. This machine, the writer
says, has accomplished the problem OF
combining the natural elements so as 10
manufacture wholesome food. Edison Is
made TO say In this interview: "ln ten
years nv machine will be used to provide
the tables OF the civilized world. Meat
will be no longer killed and vegetables
no longer grown, except by savages, lot
my methods will be so much cheaper"
Mr.. Edison then exhibited samples of tOod
which he said he mad made from dirt in
his cellar and from water taken from the
water pipes in the house. The writer
says:
He led me down pair OF stairs into
light basement room where sWarlhy
locking man was busy about a big ma
chine, an iron vessel, holding about a
barrel, attached to something that looked
like hydraulic ram. The shelves were
lined with chemicals. There was small
battery in the corner, from which one
wire went TO the vat. A kerosene lamp
burned under sort of ret0rt. That ana
four crooked pipes with handles were all
that was visible,
"How is it nowv' said Edison. about
03, ;" replied the man. That was all. we
returned TO the room above. IL shall
simplify that machine one-half," he re-
marked. t'Yet with that | can turn out
at least five tons of food OF various kinds
every day. | have already made eighteen
kinds Of food. l Will tell you something
II you will not say word till say go
ahead All food comes, of course, pri-
marily, from the earth. The plants and
fruits we eat come from the moist ground,
and the animals we eat live on the plants,
or on other animals which the plants have
kept alive. SO all food comes from the
elements stored in earth. air and water.
You eat grain OF wheat, tor instance.
The wheat IS mainly composed of feW
simple gases and salts that last year were
lying dormant in the earth, the air and the
water.
sit occurred to me that this process
might be FASTENED; that instead of wait
Ing year for nature to collect those ele-
ments into an organic seed L could collect
them IN an hour, or perhaps a few min
utes, and arrive at the same result by
combining them Organically. This |
have done. l first find out what par
tIcular kind of food is made of. There
are slXty-five simple elements in nature;
that is, substances which we call simple
elements, because we have not yet sue.
ceeded 10 proving them to be compound.
! am afraid your readers will not gen.
orally understand what l am going to
say. Ii you use 1t be careful to take il
down verbatim.
"rhere are siXty-ive elements. Car
bon Ia the king OF these. 1t is the great
organizer. 1t is never absent from any
plant or animal organism. 1t Is at the
base OF almost everything. 1t is the key
to my discovery, for it possesses the pc
culiar capacity TO torn molecules from
Its own atoms. The diamond is pure
carbon, 30 are graphite and charcoal
nearly pure carbon, though they are 80
different. Sugar and starch belong to
the hydrocarbons, and l cannot under
stand why their manufacture out OF earth
and water hasn't been hit on before.
form all my meat compounds by exposing
| three elements in a red hot state to nitro.
| gen gas, though l use different flavors
which | get from the earth, too. l nave
| had to bring from Westminster county
some argillaceous soil not found here.
IL can make a wine, and have made it,
| with New Jersey earth aud water thai
no man can tell from Chateau Yquem.
| find that those elements combine at the
| lowest temperature that have the same
! atomOcity-that is, the same bonds by
which they unite with one another OF
| with compound molecules. THIS great
invention has not been hit on before be.
cause analytic chemistry has received
too much attention 10 the exclusion oI
| synthetic chemistry; men have been
| more devoted to learning than to doing.
| LaVolsier was just on the edge OF it and
I missed. Sir Humphrey Davy, LIebig and
| Faraday were all in sigDt OF it and sud.
| denly turned aside. They succeeded in
| making urea out Of the elements and
several other inorganic substances, but
they stopped at that. They overlooked
the simplicity OF this thing.
~ think that after two or three years
| New Workers, for instance, will no longer
eat meat or vegetables. They will not
send to the Tropics for fruits or to Europe
| for wines, because the head Of every fam.
| lily, by turning crank or, perhaps with.
! out turning crank, If a clock apparatus
is attached) can produce more delicious
fruits and wines at a tenth OF the cost.
"Sir Isaac Newton said: The proper.
ties of all food are in the dirt under our
feet and In the air over our heads-bu,
| they elude our grasp | was led on by
Dalton's great discovery OF the law oil
multiple proportions, that the atomic
weight OF compounds is the same as the
atomic weight of their ingredients. | was
helped also by the well-knOwn law of is
morphism, that certain groups OF sub.
stances exist. any member OF which can
be replaced by any other member in equiv
alent proportions without changing the
crystalline character OF the matter.
"The extraordinary analogy between
homolOgOus groups of organic compounds
and certain small groups OF the elements
as chlorine, bromlne and iodine, have
been remarked by many chemists. Not
only isolated triads, but all he elements.
may be brought into such homoIogous Sc.
ries expressed by the general formula oil
AXND. However, this Is beyond the aver
age reader and will hardly be Ineligible,
mo change OF food is contemplated.
Every man can have food OF the kind to
which he Is accustomed, or which he pre-.
fers. 1t will be as easy to produce cab.
bage as oranges, and pork as partridges.
We shall actually produce these very
Things, but in new form. 1t Will be
cabDages and oranges that have never felt
the wind and rain, and pork and par
tridges that have never been alive. We
merely take short cut and snatch the
food from the eartn without giving it the
trouble OF growing. 1t Will lack fibre,
which is the only perceptible difference
1.-THE equivalent value OF an element is
now measured by the number OF atoms oil
a monatomic or equivalent element with
which IL Will combine. IL is known, for
instance, that chloride com bines with one
atom Of hydrogen, oxygen with two, nj
trogen with three, CARBON with four, and
so on, ] have struck some astonishing
examples OF allatropnlsm, that ia, the pro.
ductiOn OF entirely dissimilar compounds
from nearly similar elements. Nature is
full of surprises. For instance, ! make
bananas and chocolate out of the very
same ingredients and the method OF COM
bining differs only "A trifle."
EDISON A HELPLESS INvALID.